


Change is Imminent

by Lita12576



Category: Green Lantern (2011), Green Lantern: The Animated Series
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-15
Updated: 2014-01-24
Packaged: 2017-12-20 05:38:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/883552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lita12576/pseuds/Lita12576
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Amber is just your average 25 year old. She went to college and kept up a job that barely paid the bills. And, well, she was actually satisfied. And then, well, along came the strange green ring. So much for simple.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Day to day life (Prologue)

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first shot at a fanfiction, so please, be kind.

It was simple. Wake up, brush my teeth, take a shower, and fix the hair. Put on clothes, and hurry to my used, dark blue mustang, because I’m always late when I leave. Grab a coffee from Starbucks, and drive over the speed limit to my college classes. Major in astronomy. Minor in mythology. Eat a quick lunch at some random café, and zoom off to the part time job that I work. Waitressing. Not very fun, but it pays the bills. Most of the time, anyways. Drive home, and order Chinese or pizza, because I’m too tired to cook. Stumble to my bedroom, and fall asleep before my face hits the pillow.  
That was my life.  
It was hard.  
It was simple.  
Was.  
My life was that way until I was 25, and then, all hell broke loose. Now you’re like “What? Boyfriend? Got fired? Featured on the news?” Yeah. I wish. That would be a lot less complicated. Of course, leave it to me to land myself in the middle of a space drama. Meet some aliens, get mentored by one. Learn how to kick ass. Fight in an intergalactic war, and fall in love with a real life E.T. Now, you’re like “Okay. Yeah, right. Nice fantasy, honey.” But I’m not kidding. It went a little bit like this.


	2. Just a Dream

I was dreaming. I knew because my father and sister couldn’t possibly be alive. We were all sitting on the rocks by our favorite place. The waterfall, in the forest we lived by. Nobody else knew of it. It was our place.   
The waterfall itself was about 15 feet tall, and it was hidden from the trails by rocks and greenery. Strangely enough, it didn’t make much noise. The only reason we had found it was because my little sister, Amy, had wandered off the trail. And we looked everywhere. It was totally by accident that we found the waterfall and the stream. And her, captivated by its beauty. 7 year olds were distracted easily. Of course, my dad and I had run up to her, peppered her with kisses with orders to never do that again!! Once we were sure that she understood, we had directed our attention to the magnificent water display. We had stayed there the rest of the day, and had returned on a regular basis.  
I loved it there. But I hadn’t returned since they died, in a fire. I couldn’t bring myself to. It held too many memories. And that was why I knew I was dreaming. Because we were all crowded on the largest flat rock by the falls, talking, laughing, and eating. Being a family. But I had no family anymore. They were dead.  
I jolted awake, breathing heavily, the dream still fresh in my mind. Calming myself down, I looked around my bedroom. It was still bright yellow. The window was still open. A cold breeze drifted in, raising goose bumps on my skin. I felt one lone tear dripping down my cheek.   
I hadn’t dreamt of my deceased family members in a while. This had been a relief to me. Until now. It had happened a few years ago. I had been at work. It was on a slow day when I got the phone call. The phone call telling me that my father, Jackson, and my sister, Amy, were dead. I had frozen up, phone still in hand, when one of the other workers, a close friend of mine, Rachael, asked me what was wrong. I remembered her eyes widening when she grabbed the phone from my hands, when the doctor told her of what had occurred. She had hung up, and, not saying a word, she had wrapped her arms around me, orange hair pulled back into a sloppy bun.   
That was six years ago. Six long, hard, simple years.   
I looked at my alarm clock, which rested on a small bedside table. It was 2 a.m. I knew that I should be going back to sleep. I did, after all, have school at 8. But I knew that sleep wasn’t going to come. Not tonight.  
I swung my legs to the side of the bed. I shuddered slightly as my feet touched the cold wooden flooring. My stomach growled slightly. Well, then. Food it is. Beef Lo-Mein sounded good. I padded towards my mostly-unused kitchen. I pulled out the leftovers of Lo-Mein and grabbed a fork.   
I sighed slightly as the flavor of the first bite hit my taste-buds. As I finished my food, I pulled the book on my table towards me. I set down the fork, and attempted to get lost in the world of aliens, emerald eyes, and magical hammers. Of course. For once, I could not get lost in the mythical world of Thor, and his mischief-filled brother, Loki. Don’t judge. I do minor in mythology, after all.   
And so, I decided to go for a run. I always preferred running at night, instead of day, anyways. I pulled out my knee length leggings, yanked an A.C.D.C. shirt over my head, and slipped into my tennis shoes. I took the stairs to the bottom of the building, and slipped out the door. The security guard called after me “Be safe out there, Amber!”   
I smiled slightly. Oh so protective, Mr. Wells. Well, I guess he is a security guard.  
I started jogging, enjoying the cold night air as it blew softly against my skin. It was refreshing, and I soon got lost in the feel of the burn starting to make its self known in my legs. Houses started appearing. Then they started spacing out.   
After about 40 minutes, it started to rain. Not long after, my clothes and hair started sticking to me uncomfortably. I looked around, and saw a house, with a sign that said “For Rent” on it. I wasn’t paying attention to that though.  
I was paying attention to its broken stairs. I was paying attention to the body that was sprawled lifelessly across them.


	3. Decision

I just froze there, right on the sidewalk. What should I do?? Was the question that blew through my head on repeat. I figured that I should pull out my cell phone, and call the police. That was the most logical thing to do, right? But something stopped me. I don’t know what it was. Curiosity? Intuition? I had no idea.   
I don’t know what urged me towards that porch. What compelled me through that overgrown sea of grass, which looked like it hadn’t been cut in years? Whatever it was, unbeknownst to me, it was going to change my whole life.   
My long, brown hair stuck to my face. I was constantly having to blink rain out of my eyes. The grass I currently trudged through clung to my legs and feet, ripping out of the ground as I kept walking. My feet sunk in the mud with every step I took. It was almost as if the Earth was trying to keep me from reaching that porch.   
I could feel water and mud leaking into my ratty old tennis shoes. Well, the rest of me was soaked. Why not my socks, too? My feet hit something hard. I looked down, and I could just barely make out cracked pieces of cement that were most likely part of a walkway at some point. Now, they were overrun by grass. The pieces crunched under my weight.  
At first, when I reached the broken stairs, I thought the being laid out across them dead. He certainly looked it. He had gashes, bruises, and limbs sticking out at unnatural angles. He was muscled, and I could barely make out the slightest rise and fall of his chest. His hair was black, and it was tousled, spiking outwards at the tips, which fell to his chin in layers. He almost looked human. I would have thought he was, except that his skin was a light purple color. And that he was clothed in a skin tight green suit, which seemed to be glowing and flickering out, only to light back up again. A symbol was on his chest, a circle with a line on top of it and on the bottom of it. The suit was the only thing that looked the slightest bit familiar.   
It was on the news, about a year ago. A man, in a suit very similar to the one I was looking at right now, had saved hundreds of lives, by summoning a green racetrack out of thin air. A helicopter had gone down, but the racetrack had eventually returned it safely to the ground, with only minimal casualties.   
There had been a few more occurrences of the same kind of thing, of the man flying through the sky, sitting on rooftops, and battling the entity he referred to as Paralax. He would disappear with no notice for a time, and then reappear just as quickly.   
They had called him a Green Lantern. Most of the images I had seen – almost all of which were blurry beyond recognition – showed him to have short, brown hair. He, like the Green Lantern before me, seemed to have been quite muscular as well.   
I found myself kneeling on the broken steps next to the wounded alien. They creaked and groaned under my weight, threatening to collapse right out from under my knees. The stairs shifted slightly, and the alien hissed in pain, his eyes flying open. They were a bronze color, and the streetlights’ glow glinted in their depths.  
He took in the wood above him, and his eyes dulled to a more brown color. He closed his eyes again, and let his head loll to the side. I had stopped breathing, and found myself needing air. I drew in a breath, and got startled when his eyes flashed open again. I froze as his bronze eyes turned black. Why were his eyes changing color??   
His now black eyes roved over my body, stopping when they landed on my face. “What…” he started to cough up blood. I knelt forward quickly, and slipped a hand under his back. He kept his eyes on me as I, as gently as I could, helped him to sit up slightly. I knew he couldn’t do it himself. It looked like too many bones were broken for that. I didn’t have much medical experience, but I did know that his coughing up blood – pink blood? – meant he had internal bleeding. After a few moments, he seemed to calm down a bit, and, eventually, he did stop coughing.   
He attempted talking again. “Wha…what…planet…?” And the blood came again. When he stopped shaking and coughing, I spoke, for the first time.  
“What planet are you on?” Looking relieved, he nodded. “Earth.” He looked puzzled for a moment. Then understanding dawned across his pain-filled features.   
“Hal… J-Jordan. Two Eight...One Four.” He managed. I felt my eyebrows furrow. Hal Jordan must be that Green Lantern on the news. 2814? What did that stand for? No matter, he needed help.   
“You…you need medical attention. Badly.” I said as I looked at the blood. But, already, his breaths were starting to grow shallower and shorter. “Quickly.” I started fishing around for my cell phone in my pocket.   
“No time.” He looked tired. No. No, no, no. “Too late.” I watched as his one good hand reached over to his right. He grabbed onto a green ring, and pulled it off. Slowly, the green suit melted away, leaving him in black pants. His chest was as bad as the rest of him. Worse, even.   
“Hey, hey. Calm down.” But he already looked calm. Too calm. “Don’t die on me. That’s a horrible first impression.” He let out a soft chuckle, and pressed the green ring into my hand.  
“I do hope…” He coughed. “…you’re right for the ring. Place it on your finger. It will…take…you…to…Oa…and…” I gripped his hand.  
His eyelids started to droop. “No! Keep your eyes open! Do not die on me!” But it was too late. He was already gone. His eyes had dulled. His chest ceased to rise and fall. I sat there, for what seemed like hours, as his skin grew colder and colder. It was probably only minutes, really. Thunder crackled. With a small hesitation, I drew my hand across his face, and closed his eyes, which would never startle me by changing color again.   
I leaned back onto the balls of my feet. He was dead. There was nothing I could do, now. I had never seen someone die before. Before this moment, I had never seen the light drain from them, slackening their limbs and features. Eyes were just eyes. Devices used for vision, and came in all sorts of different colors. I had read books that also described them as windows to the soul. I had never really believed that. They were just eyes. Just another part of the body. I couldn’t doubt it, though. Not now. Not when I had just seen the light, life, and possibility drain out of the eyes before me.   
I turned away from him, and lowered myself until I was sitting. As I gazed out at the rain and lightening, as I listened to the booming thunder, I got lost in thought.   
What to do, what choices were laid before me? Two choices. The first one was…simple. Very simple. I could set this strange ring down on the ground, or the steps I currently sat on. I could get up; brush myself off of this experience. I could start back through that unkempt lawn of grass, and start running back home through the rain. I could run back to civilization. I could walk through the doors of my apartment building, and greet the security guard, Mr. Wells. I could take the elevator up to my room, and forget all about this. I could forget this ring, this person, this death.   
The second one was…well…not so simple. I could accept this. I could accept the unknown. I could take this green ring, and slide it onto my finger. But what would happen after that? What was a Green Lantern? Where was this...Oa? What did the numbers 2814 mean? What, or who, was Paralax? Did I really want to know? Enough to justify taking the chance, and hand myself over blindly to the unknown?   
I thought for a long time. I don’t know how long, but it was a while. It stormed on and on. The sun hadn’t risen yet. The houses all around me were vacant and vandalized. I thought. And thought. And thought.   
I stood up, and looked around me. At the grass. At the very few trees. At the houses. At the alien. At the ring. I looked up at the sky somewhat hesitantly, and instantly got doused with water. Without looking down, I slipped the ring onto my right, middle finger. My decision was made.


	4. Hal Jordan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I've decided to switch the POV from first person to third person. And damn I think I jinxed it when I said that this chapter hopefully wouldn't take as long as the last one. It's been months. I'm so sorry! So, I downloaded google-drive on my tablet and phone, so I can write, like, anywhere, now. Hopefully that'll help?

Amber didn't really know what she was expecting when she slipped that ring on her finger. A flash of light, maybe? Sudden knowledge and wisdom? An owners manual, at least? She needed one. None of these things happened, though. Nothing did, really. When she slipped that green lantern ring on Her finger, it just kept raining. She froze for a couple of seconds, thinking, maybe it just takes a minute. Or...not.   
She tilted Her head back towards the ground. She was just now noticing the slosh of water and mud shifting in Her shoes. Gross. She was soaked, and, now that Amber thought about it, cold.   
What now? She wondered. Well, first, she needed to figure out what to do with the man on the porch. She really should just call someone, and let them take care of it, but that just seemed, well, wrong. For all she knew, he had family back from wherever he came from. She doubted they would take well to Her government poking and prodding at his corpse. She shuddered. That was what they would do, wasn't it? They were the U.S. government, after all. They'd dissect him like a frog in a highschool lab. The thought made Her sick to Her stomach. It was a horrible thought, but it was true.   
But if not that, then what could she do? She looked up at the sky again, as if it held all the answers.   
Aaaaand maybe it does? It was hardly noticable, but a green glow could be seen near the clouds. It slowly got bigger, and became more and more human...alien...person shaped.   
The man from the videos of Parallax, whatever the hell that thing even was, touched to the muddy, overgrown vegetation in front of the vacant house.   
"Oh, no. Marek'th." He had immediately knelt down at the alien's, no, Marekth's, side. "Damn it, man. Damn it." His right hand clenched into a fist. After a moment, he stood and swung around to face Amber, brown eyes falling onto the ring on Her hand.  
His gaze wandered up Her sternum to rest on Her face. "So his ring chose you?"  
It took Her a moment to answer. "N-no." She stuttered. "I was just jogging and - well, yeah. I found...him." She drew in a breath of air, brow furrowing. "He gave me it before he - died. Said he hoped I was... right for the ring."  
"I see." His own brow furrowed, then smoothed over, and he held out his hand. "My name's Hal Jordan. What do people say at moments like these? Oh. Welcome to the Green Lantern Corps. Basically, glorified space cops."


	5. Oa, and Company

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaaaand...Hello! This was unexpected, but I suppose when inspiration hits, I've got to take advantage of it, and...this happened.

It was an average day on Oa, breeze blowing lightly, delegates from various planets and sectors bustling about, giving the occasional Green Lantern a wide berth of space (After all, the Green Lanterns did each have a whole sector to look after- they couldn't all just lounge around on Oa). There was constant sound, whether it be the staccato tapping, shuffling, and pounding of feet, the shrubbery rustling in the wind, or the voices rising above one another. Of course, there were citizens of Oa, too, the planet was big, and used for a whole bundle of purposes ranging from a vacation spot (A very high security vacation spot) to a prestigious schooling area (And to, of course, a very large, willful lantern corps). Data pads were tapped on by citizens, delegates, and lanterns alike, as they were a very universal form of knowledge and entertainment.

Buildings burst from the ground much like skyscrapers in New York, or the Eiffel Tower in Paris, except they were, obviously, ridiculously green. Yes, green was everywhere. Green buildings. Green flooring. Green walls, green ceilings, green everything. when one bought a living area they could, of course, personalize the space any way they liked, whether their color preference be pink, blue, or, Guardians-wish-they-could-forbid, yellow. But, either way, everything started out green on Oa. That was the thing Amber couldn’t take her mind off of. Perhaps, there was such a thing as too much green.

That wasn’t all that had made an impression on her. Hal Jordan turned out to be surprisingly good company, showing her around, guiding her through the basics. That was about all he could do, as he was fairly new to this himself, but, after fighting a gigantic fear entity and punching said fear entity in the face, (So that’s what Parallax was. The embodiment of fear. Whatever the hell that was supposed to mean.) she guessed that he was a tad bit more qualified for his job than the average rookie, including herself. She was majoring in Astrology, not badassery. Oh, well. Kilowog was her mentor, maybe he could help her correct that. (Kilowog. Lord, he was huge. How the hell was she supposed to punch that walking embodiment of badassery, let alone some evil crap like Parallax? How did Hal do this?) The Bolovaxian was nice, rough around the edges, but he was really just a big ol’ bucket of affectionate hugs on the inside.

She had her own sector to look after. Not really her own, she guessed, but 2814 already had a protector. Sector 2261, Marek’th’s sector, on the other hand, was, sadly, lacking one. She took over. And, well she couldn’t complain. She had a whole Green Lantern planet to talk to, after all. Mogo was intriguing! Well, to be honest, name one talking planet that wasn’t. He (She? It? Amber’d go with he.) turned out to be good company, too, if a bit cryptic.

Sinestro was...something else. Were all Korugarians so...uptight? With creepy moustaches? If they were, she definitely did not want to go to Korugar. He reminded her of Satan himself. But that was ridiculous, right? That guy, no matter the magnitude of that stick up his ass, couldn’t be the devil. Hal and Kilowog and Tomar Re (Walking, talking fish, Hal was right) assured her that he just seemed to dislike anything and everyone the moment he laid those green eyes on them (Of course, green, everything here was green, even this guy’s eyes, and was it just her, or did it feel like those things pierced her very soul when he glared down at her?) She didn’t think it helped that she’d told him that he looked like a Spock look-a-like, except for, well, that moustache, and his overall redness, and left that as her first impression on him. Yeah, that probably hadn’t helped any. But hey, if he was going to be such an ass, she’d be an ass right back. Maybe she’d apologize later...maybe.

She was provided a small (But most certainly not lacking- how had they managed to fit a kitchen in there?) loft space, but, well, she’d lived in much, much worse conditions. (She prefered not to remember) And yes, the first week she lived there, she rigged that control panel in the room to change the walls to light red (God, she was starting to hate green.), and, holy shit, with the touch of a few buttons, she could change the walls to any pattern and/or color she wanted. Virtual stuff was amazing. How come nobody on Earth had thought of this?  
All in all, Oa was amazing! The people there were awesome!... well, most of them. Sinestro was still an ass.


	6. Chapter 5

Yeah. Everything was green. Except...the Guardians. Of all the things to not be green, and it was them. Figures. They seemed really stuck up to Amber. Overly so. It was annoying, but it’s not like there was anything she could do about it. Right now, they were telling her about Marek’th’s death. That was the only reason she was listening.

“Green Lantern Marek’th was a very skilled lantern. Honorable. He kept his sector - now your sector - safe and under control.” As you will do. There was just that unspoken annoyance at the end of Appa Ali Apsa’s sentence. He was the worst. She had an intense dislike of him the moment he spoke. “He just has that effect on everyone - it’s not personal, not really…” Hal had said when she asked why Apsa hated her so much. “It is not surprising, really, that he automatically assumed the worst of you. He does so with everyone of your...demeanor.” Why had she asked Sinestro? Doing that was just begging to be insulted. 

“He also had many enemies. Most lanterns do. We believe his death was due to a calculated attack from one of these enemies. He was in sector 2814 assisting Green Lantern Hal Jordan relocate a colony when they received an Ungaran distress signal. Marek’th answered it, leaving Jordan continue with the relocation of Colony 221 Beta. We now know that it was in fact not an Ungaran signal, but a foreign source imitating one. We have, thus far, been unable to determine the identity of the actual sender. Until we do, it is advisable to exercise the appropriate amount of caution.”

“You think that this person...or people...is a danger to me?” Were the Guardians...concerned? That was new.

“Indeed. We have noticed that when a lantern is killed by an enemy, that enemy also attempts to destroy his or her replacement, and their replacement after that, so on and so forth. While that is not certain, in this case, it most certainly cannot be disregarded as a possibility.” Came Sayd’s reply. Sayd was better than Apsa, at least in the aspects of friendliness, as friendly as a Guardian could get, anyway. 

“That...that makes sense. Thanks. For warning me, I mean.” It made a lot of sense. Too much sense.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________  
She was still getting used to flying. Every moment she was in the air, it felt like she was going to plummet with the slightest loss of concentration. But...at least she could actually get into the air now. Originally, she had planned to walk everywhere, lest it be an absolute necessity to fly in certain situations. Flying through space? Sure. It’s not like she could fall anywhere. But the moment she could see the ground, she panicked. 

Amber didn’t tell Hal this. Or Tomar Re, and Kilowog, not anyone. Especially not Sinestro. She couldn’t imagine the mockery that would get her. 

So, of course, it only made sense that it was him to find her regarding the end of the platform in front of her, with a blank expression on her face. Apparently, most of everything used by Green Lanterns and the Guardians was elevated by an average of 400 to 500 feet, sometimes more. Especially Lantern quarters, and the Guardian Citadel. It was supposedly safer and more secure to be cut off from the citizens, prevented unnecessary violence and conflict. She could see the logic in it, but it didn’t stop her from hating it. 

She was going to be late for training. Kilowog was gonna kill her. All because she was too afraid to fly off a 600 foot platform. So heights would literally be the death of her. She stared at the edge. Took a step forward. Took one back. Contemplated the edge again. 

“What are you doing?” She whipped around and nearly stepped off the platform. Sinestro grasped her arm in a tight grip and pulled her effortlessly upright. He let go just as quickly. 

“I…” Crap. “Uhh...admiring the view.” It was supposed to be a statement, but came out sounding more like a question. 

He cocked an eyebrow at her. “Is that so? It looked to me as if you were afraid of the edge.” Her brows furrowed. Why did he have to know everything? It’s like he read her like an open book. 

“W-what? No, I’m not, it’s just…” She trailed off. She sighed in defeat and stared down at her green feet. Green, everywhere- 

“That is irrational. You have the power to fly, yet you fear of doing so.” There was something in his voice, something that made her think he was trying to validate it for himself. “Fear is irrational.” His tone makes her look up. It is a stubborn tone. The tone that says, to her at least, ’I’m about to do something - you won’t like it, and I don’t care.’.

He does. He grabs her arm again, and tugs her towards the edge. Her eyes go comically wide. “No. No. Nu-uh. Not happening.” 

“You’ll be fine.” 

“No I won’t!” 

He sighs, but continues dragging her beside him. She resists, but it doesn’t exactly do much good. He stops right at the edge, toes hanging off slightly.

“Why are you afraid of flying?” 

She was staring down at the ground 600 feet below her, but now she glares straight into his eyes. “I’m not afraid of flying, I’m afraid of falling.” He narrows his eyes at her, and his pointed eyebrows furrow. “There is a difference, you know.” 

He makes a hmmmmm kind of sound, gazing thoughtfully below them. He’s still gripping her arm, though not as tightly as before. Without warning, he switches his grasp to her wrist, and tugs her into the air along side him. 

She lets out a small squeak. He automatically floats in midair, but she drops suddenly, only held up by his hand. “Fly.” He says, and damn him, because this just isn’t right. You don’t just pull people off a ledge whenever the thought strikes you. She furiously grabs at him. He sighs again, and purposefully loosens his hand around her wrist. “Fly, or I will drop you. Either way, you will fly. It is in your instincts now. You won’t let yourself fall.” 

“Yeah?! And what happens If I do?! I die!”

“It is possible to survive a 50 kroha drop. The odds of you dying from that are minimal.” Minimal. Minimal? Minimal!? Is that it?! Nonetheless, she starts to focus more on floating upwards. After a few seconds, she does, a bit gingerly. 

“Good.” He pulls her further away from the platform. “I am going to let go, now.” He does. She wants to hate him for it, but can’t quite bring herself to. She grabs at him again, but he drifts away. She follows clumsily, if one could be clumsy in midair.This goes on for a while. 

Suddenly, he stops. She nearly crashes into his chest. When had they started flying so quickly? She grips his shoulders. 

“Do you understand?” He asks. 

“Enlighten me.”

“Focus on your goal when flying. Eventually, it will become second nature.”

“You sound like you have experience.”  
“I...do.” He hesitates. “My mentor, instead of this approach, simply pushed me off. It was extremely effective.” It takes everything she has not to bust out laughing. Maybe Sinestro wasn’t so bad...


End file.
